Distinct American Culture

In the 1820s and the 1830s, America faced the era of democracy and era of eradicating slavery. During this period, America experienced the niche of democracy and there it involved national politics. In terms of democracy, the most prominent thing that was being addressed was the issue of slavery and the way it could be abolished from the system (Holt, 1983). Artists like Harriet Beecher Stowe advocated for a non-slavery culture; she wrote about the accounts of abolitionists and slavery in her book Uncle Tom’s cabin. This brought about the abolitionist transformation. In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison started publishing The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper dedicated to equality for all Americans including the African Americans (CliffsNotes).

There was radical abolition movement that was meant to eradicate slavery. Many historians were included in this era that included Robert Abzug, Richard Blackett, Aileen Kraditor among others. These fellows brought about the changing culture of America accepting African Americans as equal, and tried to eradicate slavery (Green, 2009). In this time, there also emerged a movement called Young American Movement, which was led by Stephen Douglas. The movement was meant to embrace and enhance commerce, technology, and internationalism. Through the combination of these two facts, the America became a great success. This culture brought about the Lincoln- Douglas debates. Lincoln said that the US could not be divided more to success as a half slave and half-free state (Johannsen, 1965). This would not bring up the economic success that the country needed.

In this era, the need for democracy emerged, an activity termed as American Renaissance came to existence. It involved usage of newspapers, magazines, and communication articles to portray democracy. This was tested by poets like Whitman and Emily Dickinson; they used unrhymed and off rhyme verses to portray their messages. Most of the themes that they put on their articles were for slave liberation and economic enhancements.